to root or not to root?

[thovrlrdrls]

Ok, I have had enough of AT&T and their promises of 'coming soon'. Would it be a good idea to root? Is there a reliable ICS build for the SGS2 that can be used? I just bought my phone a couple of months ago and there is warranty left that *might* come in handy if there isn't a stable build to root with.

Anxiously await comments and replies!

 

[noschvt]

I have been using the CM9 nightly builds and they have been working great. Rooting was really easy and only took 20 minutes.

Make sure you follow the directions here:

[GUIDE] How to Flash Custom Binaries Without Ever Incrementing the Flash Counter!! - xda-developers

This way you can flash ROMs without triggering the internal counter. Makes it easy to restore back to stock and send in for repair.

 

[Jonna09]

Root! Root! Root!

Seriously, there is no point in waiting for AT&T. Also, there are loads of ROMs that are already "stable".

I use ShoStock2 and in my opinion, this is pure awesomeness. All of the ICS goodness with a hint of TW and super performance and battery life. I am not kidding! On low usage, I got nearly two days.

[RoM][XWLP7-4.0.3-ICS]SHOstock2 v2.2.2 [04/27](No Glitter No Glamour) - xda-developers

Do read up as much as you can before you do this though. Very important!

 

[j510]

No don't do it

 

[Trip64]

I also got tired of waiting for the battery fix so I rooted.... I'm running aokp ICS.. I wish I had done it day one.

 

[fldude99]

I don't see any reason to root. The device works like a champ in its out of the box stock state. For me, I have no interest in ICS after experiencing ICS on my Transformer tablet. GB is fine until my next device.. Be careful what you wish for..just my 2c

 

[izzymyster]

Wait, so its possible to root without voiding warranty? Also anyone know of some Mac rooting instructions? All I ever see are Windows instructions.

 

[noschvt]

Rooting does void your warranty, but there are ways to do it that allow you to go undo it and return it for repair. The trick is in how you root and flash other kernels or ROMS. I am also a Mac user and it was really easy to do. You will need to load the heimdall program in order to flash your phone from your computer. To avoid problems with heimdall you will want to uninstall Samsung Kies if you had previously installed it. While it is possible to run heimdall with kies installed, it does require stopping some services before it works. It's just easier not to have it.

I post a link above on how to image without triggering the counter, but here is another link I used and the kernel I used to get CWM.

[Heimdall][Odin][Stock][Root]UCKH7/KK6 Return/Unbrick to Stock (or Root) - xda-developers

[KERNEL][UV][CWM] Entropy's Daily Driver-GB, 03/07/2012 (Small Fixes)) - xda-developers

The whole process is pretty easy. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[SeanBest]

Root. Flash SHOstock v2 available on XDA. Amazing ROM, great dev, tons of updates, listens to feedback.

Best ROM and dev I've used yet.

 

[thovrlrdrls]

Wow! thanks a lot guys! I guess I'm going to go with the popular opinion to root.

BTW fldude99, GB hogs battery power. A full charge barely gets me 10 hours. I'm hoping ICS will change that.

On to ICS!

 

[anneoneamouse]

GB 2.3.4 doesn't hog battery, the ATT 2.3.6 update caused battery drain for lots of people.

I'm rooted and stock 2.3.4 (the version of GB that the phone came with). I rooted so I could disable the update manager, and remove the AP app (by renaming the file extension), along with some of the other stuff.

I typically get 40 hours from one charge for work-usage; with exchange set to push and brightness set to min, gps off, wifi on. Maybe 40 emails per day.

I *think* that Entropy512 posted here somewhere that the ATT ICS leaks so far don't get very good battery life either, 'out of the box'.

AoN

 

[KeiranSolaris]

I love LiLChris06's PhoneBricker Rom with Entropy's ICS kernel.
Phonebricker has an app kitchen which you can use to download themes, mods, kernels, etc. Very stable and he updates almost once a week.

[Rom][4.0.3-ICS][XWLP3] Phone-Bricker v2.6.1 - 5/7/12 (Kitchen is live again!) - Page 218 - xda-developers

 

[moorecomp]

Root. Flash SHOstock v2 available on XDA. Amazing ROM, great dev, tons of updates, listens to feedback.

Best ROM and dev I've used yet.

2nd that. Running SHOstock2 ver 2.2.6 and very happy with it.

moorecomp

 

[Jonna09]

I was running ShoStock2 2.2.6, but I just didn't like the latest theming decisions. Moved onto AOKP, and its pretty cool. 10x more customization.